Lutheran Social Service Invites Community to Juneteenth Event on June 16

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS) is proud to host its first annual Juneteenth event on Thursday, June 16 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis to recognize the significance of Juneteenth and offer an opportunity to support Black-owned businesses.

LSS’ Juneteenth event will be held in the parking lot of the Center for Changing Lives at 2400 Park Avenue and will feature more than a dozen black-owned vendors who will be selling savory and sweet selections from their eateries, artwork, books, clothing, jewelry, purses and other goods and services. LSS Human Resource representatives will be available to discuss career opportunities.  

Vendors include: Purses by Marsjameson, T-shirts by Workzone Ent, Books by Saba Sean, Bubby’s Smokehouse, Whipped Cheesecake & Co., The Kitchen Food Truck, Turtle Creations Art, Tony Mcnas Art, That’s My Jam, Sean Dee’s Events and Treats, Scntsy and others. Music will be provided as well!

The event is being organized by the Pan-African Employee Resource Group at Lutheran Social Service, dedicated to promoting racial equity, opportunity and awareness of the accomplishments and history of African Americans. Their work supports the organization’s vision that all people have opportunity to live and work in community with full and abundant lives.

Juneteenth observes the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to ensure that all enslaved people were freed—an event that occurred two years after Emancipation Proclamation, according to History.com. The year following 1865, a day of celebrating freedom for all African Americans was organized in Texas on June 19, a tradition that spread and took root in other parts of the country.